By MERIDITH FORD
Journal Restaurant Critic

EAST PROVIDENCE - The Brazilian phenomenon that is churrascaria de rodizio has reached Rhode Island at an unassuming little spot on North Broadway.

Churrascarias are Brazilian restaurants that specialize in barbecuing meats on spits. In the United States, they are popular from Atlanta to Seattle. Waiters dressed as southern Brazilian gauchos (cowboys) encircle the dining room with meats skewered on a spit, slicing from it bits of pork and filet mignon as you crunch on hearts of palm and slurp down feijoada (a seasoned bean stew).

At Casa Brasil, the idea is the same, but this tiny, family-owned restaurant is more austere. The circus-like fun of a typical churrascaria is alive here, but it's on a less grand scale, conveying the feeling that everything is being done just for you.

Owner Joe Barros and his wife, Rose, originally from Rio de Janeiro, can be seen in the back, tending the large barbecue pit. The waitstaff -- most either close friends or members of the Barros family -- are personable and quick to make sure that you understand the concept.

Casa Brasil offers a buffet with a large array of salads and other Brazilian specialties in addition to meats. The waiters stream endlessly around the tables, slicing meats for you to grab from the spit with your very own set of tongs.

They will keep bringing meats as long as the tiny spool you're given at the beginning of your meal -- painted green on one side for go and red on the other for stop -- is placed with the green side up. If you want to rest -- and you'll need to -- keep the spool on red. Barros is tireless at rounding the tables with the skewered meats and seems almost dejected when he sees the red side of the spool turned up.

All this sounds fun and enticing -- and it is. But it would hardly be worth it if the meats weren't as good as they are.

Eucalyptus charcoal

Barros barbecues with eucalyptus charcoal he imports from Brazil. It imparts a sensuous, exotic flavor to the pork and beef, but it's really Barros's simple preparation that makes all the meats as succulent as they are.

Barros prepares his beef in the classic Brazilian style, seasoning it with nothing more than sea salt. He cooks as many as 14 different kinds of barbecue -- from chicken to several cuts of beef -- on busy evenings.

The first for the evening was pork tenderloin. Plump and juicy, it practically burst from the spit when Barros started to cut it. Before the next offering, there was time for a green salad spruced up with the alabaster crunchiness of slender hearts of palm -- briny, yet mild -- reminiscent of a marinated artichoke heart.

Large black olives imported from Brazil, as well as a slightly spicy molho a campanha (a green-pepper-and-onion vinaigrette) made the salad the perfect mate for the pork, as well as the next round of meat -- a tender cut of sirloin tip, seasoned and dripping with flavor.

Also on the spit were chubby, fleshy chicken hearts -- thick but full of savory flavor. Barros considers them a rare delicacy when cooked on the spit. Chicken breasts and beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon as well as lamb and chourico-like Brazilian sausage were paraded as part of the rodizio as well.

Stewed beans and pork

The rodizio is the best reason for trying Casa Brasil, but there are many dishes on the buffet that are considered mainstays in Brazil. One -- the feijoada -- is considered by many to be the national dish. It is a well-seasoned, slightly salty concoction of stewed beans mixed with pork -- a meal in itself -- and paired here with fluffy white rice and the sweet starchiness of fried plantains.

Farofa is another common dish from the northern regions of Brazil (churrasco hails originally from the South, where cattle and cowboys are as common as they are in Texas). It is seasoned manioc flour (cassava meal); Casa Brasil toasts it and adds chunks of melt-in-your-mouth pork as well as sliced onions and green peppers.

More of the pork shows up in a reddish, Tabasco-styled sauce that brings to mind many of the pork dishes of Portugal. There are also thin cutlets of chicken, breaded and sauteed, served with pimento-like red and green bell peppers.

A lasagna was layered with ground meat and ricotta cheese. Its earthy flavor reminded me more of a Greek moussaka -- sans potatoes and eggplant -- than anything particularly Italian.

Brazil borrowed many dishes and cooking techniques from Portugal, and the flan at Casa Brasil does the mother country proud: thick, yet velvety and covered with a honey-like caramel. A guava cake -- really more of a gelatin than a cake -- was a deep-toned maroon, with a fragrant, sweet, musky flavor. Paired with strong coffee, both are quiet endings to a meal in motion.

The experience of the rodizio alone is something to celebrate, but when it's married with the hospitality of the Barros family -- who treat you as one of their own -- it's intoxicating.

Casa Brasil, 543 North Broadway, East Providence, 434-8500. Very casual. Reservations accepted. No smoking. Wheelchair accessible. Open Mon-Fri for lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sat-Sun for lunch and dinner from 12 to 10 p.m. V, MC. Personal checks are accepted. On-street parking. Free weekend parking in the lot across the street. Highchairs and booster seats available.

The buffet, including the churrascarias de rodizio, is $18.99 per person. The buffet without meats is $10. Desserts are $1 to $3. Beer and wine by the glass, including several Portuguese selections, is $1.50 to $4.

What it cost our critic for dinner: Two buffets that include the churrascarias de rodizio are $18.99 each. Add to that a Corona ($2.75) and a glass of vinho verde ($3.50), as well as the flan and guava cake ($3 for two half-portions) and a bubbly glass of passion fruit soda ($1.50), and the bill for two with tax ($3.41) and tip ($10) comes to $62.14.